San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was established in 1978 by the United States Congress. The Park includes four of San Antonio’s Spanish Colonial-era Missions as well as associated dams, acequias and other irrigation resources, agricultural fields or labores, and recorded prehistoric and colonial period sites within the 475-acre park boundaries. The missions within the National Park include Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísma Concepción de Acuña, Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) was specifically excluded from the park boundaries as it is owned by the State of Texas and administered by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (Ivey and Thurber 1983).

The missions’ designation as a national park was in part a recognition of the national significance of the mission system as well as a means to ensure their continued protection and preservation through federal funding and National Park Service oversight. The entire park and associated resources, including 86 structures specifically associated with the missions and 21 archeological and historical sites representing more than 260 years of regional history, were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 (Ivey and Thurber 1983). The Park Service continues to administer the park at present, and access to the associated missions is free to the public. For additional information about the history of the missions and associated resources, as well as information about accessing the individual missions, visit the National Park Service website.